Changes and Choices
Grade Level: 6th
Subject Area: Language Arts
Concept/Skill: Literature/Reading, Writing
Target Audience: whole class
Time Frame: 50 minutes, Day 7 and 8
Preparing to Teach
A. Goals:
CC.6.R.L.3- Key Ideas and Details: Describe how a particular story's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.
CC.6.W.3- Text Types and Purposes: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
B. Objective: The objective to this lesson is to help students understand how change in their life can create struggle or conflict for them. They will find different ways to go about dealing with their conflicts and finding help. They will read a story about someone who faces conflict and see how they deal with it. Through writing, they will be able to express a change or conflict that has happened in their life and try to find a way they may better their life because of it.
C. Materials: Heath Middle Level Literature textbook, paper, pencil, Smart board, powerpoint
D. Resources: Heath Middle Level Literature textbook
Instructional Process
A. Focusing Activity:
Students will be given two prompts on the Smart board to make an idea web for. Both prompts will be about a change or conflict that would affect a middle school aged child. They will write down ideas in a character web about how an individual may face the issue stated. The teacher will provide an example of a blank web for students to view.
◦ 1. “Marcus is a seventh grader who is facing peer pressure from some of his friends in eighth grade to try marijuana. He is scared about doing drugs and knows he can get in to a lot of trouble with his parents, school, and the law. What should Marcus do to avoid this conflict?” ◦ 2. “Louisa just moved into a new school for the beginning of sixth grade. She doesn't know anyone and has no friends yet. What should Louisa do to become more involved at her new school and meet people?”
After students finish their conflict idea webs, we will discuss what conflict and characterization mean in a story setting. Looking at page 104 of Changes and Choices in the textbook, we will read and discuss the Literature Study about conflict and characterization. The teacher will call on a student to read the paragraph describing conflict, then ask:
◦ “What is another word for conflict?” Students should answer with struggle or opposition.
Then, the class will read the Literature Study on characterization. A student will be called on to read the description, “the way in which a writer reveals a character's traits and qualities is called characterization” and then the teacher will ask:
◦ “What are some traits that a writer may give a character?” Students may answer with selfish, compassionate, etc.
B. Purpose: “This lesson is important to you as students because these are situations that may be happening to you in real life. Also, you may be facing another sort of change or conflict that you do not know how to handle. The story As It Is with Strangers may give you some insight on how you can handle a situation you are in.”
C. Instruction:
On the first day of class, after introducing characterization and conflict, the class will begin reading As It Is With Strangers. We will read and discuss the story from pages 25-29. Within this section of the story it introduces the characters and sets up what could be the conflict.
After reading this section, student will be broken up into groups of three. In these groups they will each be assigned a character. One will be Tiffany, one will be Mom, and the other will be Jack. In these groups they must discuss how the author has built characterization for each of them. They must then take the knowledge they have so far about their character and write about how that individual feels in this situation and predict what they think will happen to them in the rest of the story.
◦ For example: “If I was Jack, I would be an adopted child that is now grown coming back to meet my mother and younger sister. I would feel nervous and excited. I may be anticipating what they will look and act like around me and if they are being their true selves. To predict what will happen to Jack, I think he may end up really liking his mother and wishing he had her in his life for a longer period of time. I think maybe he choose to come visit his family and get in contact with them because he is very curious to see what they are like and why they gave him up. He will end up having a strong relationship with both of them.”
On day two, the class will finish reading the story in Heath Middle Level Literature from pages 30- 35 in Changes and Choices. The teacher will have the class follow along as he/she calls on students to read aloud to the class. Students will have the opportunity to see how their predictions about how the conflict for each character plays out. After reading the story, the teacher will pose questions to the entire class, such as:
◦ “Why was the mother so upset at the end of her visit with her son?” ◦ “What did Tiffany think of her brother?” ◦ “Why do you think Tiffany stayed in her room instead of consoling her mom?”
The guided activity for the end of As It Is With Strangers will include students making a new character web for the characters in the story. They will write the name of the main character and put conflicts or changes that they faced around their name. After giving students ten minutes to work on their own, we will come together as a class and review what a few students put in their web. Students will use this web for the independent practice assignment.
◦ For students who have trouble focusing on a single task, I will provide premade webs with each character's name in one so that they know where to start working from and which character to focus on.
Using the character web that the students have created, they will be assigned to rewrite the ending of As It Is With Strangers to resolve the conflict or change in a way they think is better. Some questions the teacher will pose to the class for ideas are: “What would have happened if Jack wasn't a vegetarian? What could Tiffany have done to console her mom?” Students are responsible for writing two, well-thought out paragraphs including the characters from the story and a new, creative ending.
D. Modeling:
The teacher will provide visual instruction on a power point for the definitions of characterization and conflict. Students will also have their books in front of them to refer to the meaning of these terms.
The teacher will provide clear instructions of how to make a character web including their name and conflicts faced. They will provide an example of one drawn out with a name in the center and empty circles surrounding it on the Smart board.
For the guided task on day 1, the teacher will provide a writing example to show students what to write about when acting as a character in the book.
The teacher will make character webs for students who need help focusing on one task at a time. Having the web already made up with the character's name inside will help students better grasp where to begin their assignment instead of sitting at their desks overwhelmed.
The teacher will pose questions throughout the lesson pertaining to the book, As It Is With Strangers, and change and choices.
E. Checking for Understanding:
The teacher will ask questions throughout the lesson, such as:
◦ “What are some traits that a writer may give a character?” ◦ “What is another word for conflict?” ◦ “What are some ways you could avoid conflict involving drugs and alcohol?” ◦ “In As It Is With Strangers, why was the mother so upset at the end of her visit with her son?” ◦ What did Tiffany think of her brother?” ◦ “Why do you think Tiffany stayed in her room instead of consoling her mom?” ◦ “What would have happened if Jack wasn't a vegetarian?
Students will be able to work together in groups of three when completing the activity where students play the role of one of the main characters.
Students will have to predict what will happen to the characters in the situation of meeting a family member for the first time.
F. Task/Guided Instruction:
Students will be instructed, after reading the first half of the story, to act as one of the three main character's from As It Is With Strangers. The teacher will assign students to a group of three by using a random name bank to select them. They will also be given the character they need to act as. In these groups, students will take notes and write about what they think will happen to their character in the rest of the story. They will predict what they think the reunion of Jack and his Mother will be like. As a class, we will discuss some ideas from the students.
◦ The teacher will provide an example writing for Jack's characterization. Students will be able to view this over the Smart board to have an example of how detailed their writing should be.
After the second day of class and completing the story, students will create character webs of each character and the changes, conflicts, and choices they had to make in the book. As a class, we will share ideas we came up with from the reading.
◦ The teacher will walk around the classroom to make sure everyone is working on their own web for Jack, Tiffany, and Mother. It is important that students are thorough because they will use these webs in the independent practice.
G. Independent Practice:
Students will be assigned an independent writing that they will have time to start in class and finish for homework. The writing prompt provided by the teacher will say “Using your character webs, rewrite the ending of As It Is With Strangers to resolve the change in the main character's lives. Given the writing prompt, you must write at least two, well-thought out paragraphs with a new and creative ending to the story. Think of these questions when starting your assignment: “What would have happened if Jack wasn't a vegetarian? What could Tiffany have done to console her mom?”
III. Conclusion: To conclude the lesson, students will have the opportunity to share their new endings to As It Is With Strangers. They will be able to discuss as a class the many different ways one change can be dealt with. Just this one story will have a broad range of changes made to it due to every students' different creativity levels.
IV. Evaluation:
A. Students:
Students will have written work that will be graded based on creativity and how well their strategy would resolve the change in the character's life.
Orally, students will answer questions related to the reading and literature lesson on characterization and conflict.
B. Teacher
Were students able to make a connection from the story to real-life conflicts or changes?
Do students have a better understanding of resolving conflict? Dealing with change?
Were all students participating?
Did I provide enough alternative strategies for students will special needs?
Grade Level: 6th
Subject Area: Language Arts
Concept/Skill: Literature/Reading, Writing
Target Audience: whole class
Time Frame: 50 minutes, Day 7 and 8
- Preparing to Teach
A. Goals:- CC.6.R.L.3- Key Ideas and Details: Describe how a particular story's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.
- CC.6.W.3- Text Types and Purposes: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
B. Objective: The objective to this lesson is to help students understand how change in their life can create struggle or conflict for them. They will find different ways to go about dealing with their conflicts and finding help. They will read a story about someone who faces conflict and see how they deal with it. Through writing, they will be able to express a change or conflict that has happened in their life and try to find a way they may better their life because of it.C. Materials: Heath Middle Level Literature textbook, paper, pencil, Smart board, powerpoint
D. Resources: Heath Middle Level Literature textbook
- Instructional Process
A. Focusing Activity:- Students will be given two prompts on the Smart board to make an idea web for. Both prompts will be about a change or conflict that would affect a middle school aged child. They will write down ideas in a character web about how an individual may face the issue stated. The teacher will provide an example of a blank web for students to view.
◦ 1. “Marcus is a seventh grader who is facing peer pressure from some of his friends in eighth grade to try marijuana. He is scared about doing drugs and knows he can get in to a lot of trouble with his parents, school, and the law. What should Marcus do to avoid this conflict?”◦ 2. “Louisa just moved into a new school for the beginning of sixth grade. She doesn't know anyone and has no friends yet. What should Louisa do to become more involved at her new school and meet people?”
- After students finish their conflict idea webs, we will discuss what conflict and characterization mean in a story setting. Looking at page 104 of Changes and Choices in the textbook, we will read and discuss the Literature Study about conflict and characterization. The teacher will call on a student to read the paragraph describing conflict, then ask:
◦ “What is another word for conflict?” Students should answer with struggle or opposition.- Then, the class will read the Literature Study on characterization. A student will be called on to read the description, “the way in which a writer reveals a character's traits and qualities is called characterization” and then the teacher will ask:
◦ “What are some traits that a writer may give a character?” Students may answer with selfish, compassionate, etc.B. Purpose: “This lesson is important to you as students because these are situations that may be happening to you in real life. Also, you may be facing another sort of change or conflict that you do not know how to handle. The story As It Is with Strangers may give you some insight on how you can handle a situation you are in.”
C. Instruction:
- On the first day of class, after introducing characterization and conflict, the class will begin reading As It Is With Strangers. We will read and discuss the story from pages 25-29. Within this section of the story it introduces the characters and sets up what could be the conflict.
- After reading this section, student will be broken up into groups of three. In these groups they will each be assigned a character. One will be Tiffany, one will be Mom, and the other will be Jack. In these groups they must discuss how the author has built characterization for each of them. They must then take the knowledge they have so far about their character and write about how that individual feels in this situation and predict what they think will happen to them in the rest of the story.
◦ For example: “If I was Jack, I would be an adopted child that is now grown coming back to meet my mother and younger sister. I would feel nervous and excited. I may be anticipating what they will look and act like around me and if they are being their true selves. To predict what will happen to Jack, I think he may end up really liking his mother and wishing he had her in his life for a longer period of time. I think maybe he choose to come visit his family and get in contact with them because he is very curious to see what they are like and why they gave him up. He will end up having a strong relationship with both of them.”- On day two, the class will finish reading the story in Heath Middle Level Literature from pages 30- 35 in Changes and Choices. The teacher will have the class follow along as he/she calls on students to read aloud to the class. Students will have the opportunity to see how their predictions about how the conflict for each character plays out. After reading the story, the teacher will pose questions to the entire class, such as:
◦ “Why was the mother so upset at the end of her visit with her son?”◦ “What did Tiffany think of her brother?”
◦ “Why do you think Tiffany stayed in her room instead of consoling her mom?”
- The guided activity for the end of As It Is With Strangers will include students making a new character web for the characters in the story. They will write the name of the main character and put conflicts or changes that they faced around their name. After giving students ten minutes to work on their own, we will come together as a class and review what a few students put in their web. Students will use this web for the independent practice assignment.
◦ For students who have trouble focusing on a single task, I will provide premade webs with each character's name in one so that they know where to start working from and which character to focus on.- Using the character web that the students have created, they will be assigned to rewrite the ending of As It Is With Strangers to resolve the conflict or change in a way they think is better. Some questions the teacher will pose to the class for ideas are: “What would have happened if Jack wasn't a vegetarian? What could Tiffany have done to console her mom?” Students are responsible for writing two, well-thought out paragraphs including the characters from the story and a new, creative ending.
D. Modeling:- The teacher will provide visual instruction on a power point for the definitions of characterization and conflict. Students will also have their books in front of them to refer to the meaning of these terms.
- The teacher will provide clear instructions of how to make a character web including their name and conflicts faced. They will provide an example of one drawn out with a name in the center and empty circles surrounding it on the Smart board.
- For the guided task on day 1, the teacher will provide a writing example to show students what to write about when acting as a character in the book.
- The teacher will make character webs for students who need help focusing on one task at a time. Having the web already made up with the character's name inside will help students better grasp where to begin their assignment instead of sitting at their desks overwhelmed.
- The teacher will pose questions throughout the lesson pertaining to the book, As It Is With Strangers, and change and choices.
E. Checking for Understanding:- The teacher will ask questions throughout the lesson, such as:
◦ “What are some traits that a writer may give a character?”◦ “What is another word for conflict?”
◦ “What are some ways you could avoid conflict involving drugs and alcohol?”
◦ “In As It Is With Strangers, why was the mother so upset at the end of her visit with her son?”
◦ What did Tiffany think of her brother?”
◦ “Why do you think Tiffany stayed in her room instead of consoling her mom?”
◦ “What would have happened if Jack wasn't a vegetarian?
- Students will be able to work together in groups of three when completing the activity where students play the role of one of the main characters.
- Students will have to predict what will happen to the characters in the situation of meeting a family member for the first time.
F. Task/Guided Instruction:- Students will be instructed, after reading the first half of the story, to act as one of the three main character's from As It Is With Strangers. The teacher will assign students to a group of three by using a random name bank to select them. They will also be given the character they need to act as. In these groups, students will take notes and write about what they think will happen to their character in the rest of the story. They will predict what they think the reunion of Jack and his Mother will be like. As a class, we will discuss some ideas from the students.
◦ The teacher will provide an example writing for Jack's characterization. Students will be able to view this over the Smart board to have an example of how detailed their writing should be.- After the second day of class and completing the story, students will create character webs of each character and the changes, conflicts, and choices they had to make in the book. As a class, we will share ideas we came up with from the reading.
◦ The teacher will walk around the classroom to make sure everyone is working on their own web for Jack, Tiffany, and Mother. It is important that students are thorough because they will use these webs in the independent practice.G. Independent Practice:
- Students will be assigned an independent writing that they will have time to start in class and finish for homework. The writing prompt provided by the teacher will say “Using your character webs, rewrite the ending of As It Is With Strangers to resolve the change in the main character's lives. Given the writing prompt, you must write at least two, well-thought out paragraphs with a new and creative ending to the story. Think of these questions when starting your assignment: “What would have happened if Jack wasn't a vegetarian? What could Tiffany have done to console her mom?”
III. Conclusion: To conclude the lesson, students will have the opportunity to share their new endings to As It Is With Strangers. They will be able to discuss as a class the many different ways one change can be dealt with. Just this one story will have a broad range of changes made to it due to every students' different creativity levels.IV. Evaluation:
A. Students:
- Students will have written work that will be graded based on creativity and how well their strategy would resolve the change in the character's life.
Orally, students will answer questions related to the reading and literature lesson on characterization and conflict.B. Teacher
Character Web template-
http://drb.lifestreamcenter.net/Lessons/process_maps/